Recreational Cannabis Legalization and Opioid-Related Deaths in Colorado, 2000–2015
As the abstract explains, researchers compared changes in levels and slope of monthly opioid deaths before and after Colorado began selling recreational cannabis. They found that implementation of the law was associated with a reduction of 0.7 opioid deaths per month. The abstract notes that this represents a reversal of the upward trend in opioid deaths in Colorado that was occurring prior to the recreational cannabis law.
This is not the first study to find a decrease in opioid deaths with the legalization of marijuana, but it is the first study showing such a decrease associated with recreational legalization. A study published in 2014,
Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Analgesic Overdose Mortality in the United States, 1999-2010 (which I cited and linked to on a thread a couple of years ago), conducted a time-series analysis of medical cannabis laws and state-level death certificate data from 1999 to 2010 in all 50 states (my underlining):
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Age-adjusted opioid analgesic overdose death rate per 100,000 population in each state. Regression models were developed including state and year fixed effects, the presence of 3 different policies regarding opioid analgesics, and the state-specific unemployment rate.
RESULTS Three states (California, Oregon, and Washington) had medical cannabis laws effective prior to 1999. Ten states (Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont) enacted medical cannabis laws between 1999 and 2010. States with medical cannabis laws had a 24.8% lower mean annual opioid overdose mortality rate (95% CI, −37.5% to −9.5%; P = .003) compared with states without medical cannabis laws. Examination of the association between medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic overdose mortality in each year after implementation of the law showed that such laws were associated with a lower rate of overdose mortality that generally strengthened over time: year 1 (−19.9%; 95% CI, −30.6% to −7.7%; P = .002), year 2 (−25.2%; 95% CI, −40.6% to −5.9%; P = .01), year 3 (−23.6%; 95% CI, −41.1% to −1.0%; P = .04), year 4 (−20.2%; 95% CI, −33.6% to −4.0%; P = .02), year 5 (−33.7%; 95% CI, −50.9% to −10.4%; P = .008), and year 6 (−33.3%; 95% CI, −44.7% to −19.6%; P < .001). In secondary analyses, the findings remained similar.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Medical cannabis laws are associated with significantly lower state-level opioid overdose mortality rates. Further investigation is required to determine how medical cannabis laws may interact with policies aimed at preventing opioid analgesic overdose.
In fact, one such study that further investigated the issue was published last year,
Medical Cannabis Use Is Associated With Decreased Opiate Medication Use in a Retrospective Cross-Sectional Survey of Patients With Chronic Pain, which showed that patients with chronic pain who reported marijuana use were 64% less likely to use opiates. Marijuana use was associated with better quality of life in patients with chronic pain, and with fewer medications used and fewer adverse effects of medications used. (The fewer adverse effects of medications are quite plausibly due to use of fewer medications.)
Various studies have found other noteworthy health benefits related to cannabis use. A 2011 study,
Obesity and cannabis use: results from 2 representative national surveys, discovered that the 2 surveys showed lower rates of obesity among those using cannabis at least 3 days per week (14.3% and 17.2%) compared to participants reporting no use in the past 12 months (22.0% and 25.3%). The authors note: “These differences were not accounted for by tobacco smoking status. Additionally, after adjustment for sex and age, the use of cannabis was associated with body mass index differences in both samples. The authors conclude that the prevalence of obesity is lower in cannabis users than in nonusers.” Controlling for sociodemographic factors, laboratory values and comorbidity, the lower odds of diabetes among marijuana users remained significant.
A study published in in 2013,
The Impact of Marijuana Use on Glucose, Insulin, and Insulin Resistance among US Adults, evinced that current marijuana use was associated with 16% lower fasting insulin levels and 17% lower insulin-resistance. Further, current marijuana users had significantly smaller waist circumferences.
Seemingly related, a 2012 cross-sectional study,
Decreased prevalence of diabetes in marijuana users: cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III, ascertained that marijuana users had lower age-adjusted rates of diabetes mellitus, and that the “prevalence of elevated C reactive protein (>0.5 mg/dl) was significantly higher (p<0.0001) among nonmarijuana users (18.9%) than among past (12.7%) or current light (15.8%) or heavy (9.2%) users.” C reactive protein is produced by the liver and rises with increasing levels of inflammation. One study concluded that measuring this protein is a better indicator of cardiovascular disease than the LDL test. The C reactive protein test is also used to determine levels of inflammation involved in autoimmune conditions. See:
What Is C-Reactive Protein Test?
Yet our current AG and his DEA maintain that marijuana has no medical value whatsoever and should remain a Schedule I drug. Thanks to all the American idiots who didn't bother to vote in 2016, or who pulled the lever for Trump in an effort to destroy the establishment.
So, what are your thoughts? When will the US achieve rational marijuana laws? That is, when will cannabis be legal? While Trump is in office?
